This is it. This is when this blog finally gets to the nitty gritty of what happened to the dragon over time. Hoo boy, this took a long time, but getting to the bottom of this shit was worth it.
Dragons, as my Japanese teacher put it,
have been "cutified." We started thinking that they might not be so bad as
creatures. The idea of a 'pet' dragon was particularly popular. Dragon-riding became all but a sport in several fantasy worlds. When one looks back on the stories of dragon-slaying and burninating the countryside, it's hard to see exactly why riding a dragon would be a good idea on any level.
So, what the hell happened? While I would like to blame the radical shift on the occasional "Androcles and the Lion" situation, that is not what happened. A colleague of mine actually thinks it started with a certain episode of The Addams Family; while she may have had a point, it would have been a very small trickle before a torrent. What actually happened to cause this shift was the rough equivalent of Twilight for dragons:
Dragonriders of Pern, a series of novels and short stories by Anne McCaffrey, is about humans who have created tame dragons to combat a strange foe on Mars. As one might expect, it was originally written in the 60's. The series is more science-fiction than fantasy, despite involving dragons, and continues to be written by Anne McCaffrey's son, Todd. Apparently the series actually has some literary merit; the first few books have won Hugo and Nebula Awards. This is not about how good the books are; rather, it is about the undeniable dent that the Dragonriders series made in the nature of dragons as a whole.
One thing has to get out of the gate right now: the trope "Our Dragons Are Different" is subtly in effect. Genetically-engineered dragons are still somewhat creative, and are totally foreseeable in the near future. There is indeed creativity around these dragons that McCaffrey cooked up, even if it's subtle how she's twisting them. Whether it merits legacy authorship or not is another can of worms.
Dragonriders of Pern left a mark, for sure.
Symbiotic, empathetic, telepathic dragons that can teleport? Who
wouldn't want that as a friend? Despite this relative awesomeness,
nobody else re-used any of those characteristics except for telepathy.
Oh, and getting along with humans.
On one level, I will admit that McCaffrey was onto something. If the dragon is indeed nature's fury and power incarnate, then this descent into an engineered weapon almost makes sense. Over the ages, humans have gotten better and better at harnessing the strange, bewildering powers of nature - things that would otherwise make excellent monsters in any other era. Not only are the forces of nature, well, harnessed, but they're also augmented solely for human use. Although probably not intentional, the correlation between dragons as a force of nature, tamed and the rise of mankind's control of nature suddenly makes sense. It's a logical, yet sad way to go.
So, to recap: the dragon went from being a mythical creature symbolic of a natural nemesis (and, by extension, the slaughtering of that nemesis) or power to a genetically-engineered, intelligent living weapon designed for human use. That's a pretty big change. This is as bad as sparkling vampires, but it was so long ago that nobody of this generation remembers. Fear for the vampires next, guys. Fear for the vampires next.
D&D took the idea of multicolored dragons from Dragonriders and the intelligence of Tolkein's (still otherwise traditional) Smaug and ran with it. Suddenly, dragons could wield any element, live anywhere, and be any character that a RPG setting wanted. There are good and bad dragons, even though the great majority of them are Western-style, 6-limbed, hyperintelligent, scaly behemoths. This unfortunately reached the peak of its stupidity in the frost dragon.
Again, some peace must be said. It's a good thing that people are doing new things with dragons. Ice was the only element not really embodied by a giant serpent. One could almost call it creativity if it wasn't vomited out by a marketing team on a constant basis.
The idea of a frost dragon is designed to sell. Its sole purpose in life is so that fire can fight water, because apparently tsunami-size waves just aren't as impressive as cliche Ice Beam attacks and fire VS fire is boring. I can point to a canon dragon for every element and climate except ice. Water, yes; ice, no. If anyone knows of one, please point it out to me. I would like to know if Brionac and Kyurem have any reason for being except money.
It hurts to liiiivee...
Oh, and then there's "dragon element" or "Dragon-Type." Pokemon in particular has this idea that dragons are supposed to be nigh-invincible save another dragon or being frozen solid. Dragon-Type attacks are usually not resisted. A type that started as being exactly one evolution line ballooned to 9 (Altaria, Bagon, Shelgon, Salamence, Vibrava, Flygon, Rayquaza, Latios and Latias) in Generation III. (I may accuse Gen III of ruining Pokemon later on this or another blog.) One could almost say that they parallel the Almighty element from the Shin Megami Tensei series.
There have also been a lot of recent dragon hybrids. Sunburn (dragon x phoenix) and Whirlwind (dragon x unicorn) from Skylanders come to mind. There are a number in Yu-Gi-Oh! as well, including the dreaded Rabidragon. It's almost as if regular dragons got so inbred they had to turn to other species just to make them interesting. Given that dragons are supposed to be inherently other, that says something. Creative? Yes, but it will get old fast. Showing stagnation in a concept that should be eternally terrifying and awe-inspiring? Yes.
Dragons just aren't different enough anymore. If something that used to symbolize other-ness
loses that meaning, then it has no further purpose in life. After that,
it's just a shameless whore masquerading as something that was once
symbolic. The symbol has died, or at the very least is on its last legs.
Need proof of this? Look no further than the
recent rash of highly anthropomorphized dragons. YGO's Stardust Dragon
is an excellent example: It's bipedal, has 5 digits on its hands, and is
actually a sacred being. It's not that anthropomorphism never existed
in dragons - oh, far from that - but it's been taken to such an extreme
that the human has become the dragon, and the dragon has become human.
When the symbol of the 'other' has effectively lost all 'other-ness,'
what remains except its shadow?
I am immediately reminded of a certain scene from Crichton's Jurassic Park. While plotting the park, there is a conversation about the nature of dinosaurs. One of the very smart scientists on the team points out that people do not want to see real dinosaurs. After the manager wonders what this guy is talking about, the scientist points out that this is an amusement park, so people are expecting to be amused, not eaten. Seeing real, live, 100% wild and vicious dinosaurs would dash a few expectations to the floor. I cannot help but wonder if there is a similar case with dragons; if dragons once existed and someone today found one, would they like what they saw?
This concludes these unbearably long and horribly procrastinated articles. Now enjoy the Year of the Snake, which should totally have its own article as well. Thank you for sticking with this piece!
I am open to comments, but do avoid the following: "According to my D&D manual..." Gaming companies invent their own stuff all the time. The same goes for art books and Dragonology. Cool ideas, but still designed to sell. Selling usually means obscuring the root in this instance.
Dragons are dinosaurs -
I'm actually totally open to this idea, but you have to admit that they
share a ton of symbology with snakes. In this case, one can simply say
that the ancient people who thought up dragons didn't know any better
and fused dinosaurs and snakes into dragons.
"You're wrong, I AM a dragon and I'm no snake!" - Bullshit.
There was a time I bought into Otherkinism, but so many of the
'dragons' are fakes that anyone who behaves like this will be instantly
branded a liar. Sorry if you're part of the rare 1%.
Most of you are probably wondering what made this take so long. Basically, I kept finding more and more fodder for it. Exactly what defines a dragon is very confusing, with a ton of symbolism woven into a tangled mess.
So, here's the tough part: What makes a dragon a dragon? Well, let's see what Wikipedia has to say about this:
"A dragon is a legendary creature, typically with serpentine or reptilian traits, that feature in the myths of many cultures."
Does this really suffice in defining a dragon? At first, it seems so, but if that's all it is, then the modern perception of the dragon has become far too narrow. At the same time, it looks like that definition is slowly being broken.
One would think that "any legendary reptilian" would be a fine definition, but look again. There is almost nothing reptilian about 'dragons' like Lati@s and Reshiram. Even with the generic 'legendary reptile' definition, does that make basilisks and, to a lesser degree, Medusa dragons? Most people would not say so. (Actually, the ancient Greeks WOULD call the most popular rendition of Medusa a proper drakaina-gorgon hybrid. More on that later.)
It is much easier to describe something that is not a dragon rather than to actually describe in detail what makes a dragon a dragon. Gryphons aren't dragons, even though they sometimes have serpentine tails. Nagas as the internet knows them are not usually considered dragons, even though they fill that position traditionally.
Yes, even this is a dragon. Really.
The majority of dragons have some connection to snakes. Western or Eastern doesn't matter. It doesn't even matter if dinosaur fossils were responsible for dragons. They were seen as snakes, not lizards, in the collective subconscious (otherwise we would be calling them "sauroi" or some such). Occasionally, there is also some fish in the mix, but the vast amount of serpentine traits still speak to the original basis.
Don't believe me? The Greek "drakon" is the word for snake. The Japanese "Orochi" literally translates as "big snake." The words "zmey," "naga," and the English "serpent" all speak to the relationship between dragons and snakes. Dragons are commonly depicted with a forked tongue, which is far more common in snakes than in lizards. No matter how much evidence "dragons are dinosaurs" has behind it, the dragon always comes back to "serpent" in the subconscious.
The problem is that most snakes (read: most) are not nearly impressive enough to warrant folktales and art about. Yes, it's great if you can kill a rattlesnake, but most rattlers are tiny. Snakes are also, as Secrets of the Snake Charmer put it, "cowards, then bluffers, then finally fighters" - meaning that a snake would rather run than fight unless a hot mouse is involved. A dragon is, at its core, a valiant, bellicose snake - a creature that reverses the very temperament that people hate about serpents. This reversal means that the mutant snake will put up a good fight.
As such, it can be said that snake and dragon symbolism tend to run parallel, often with the dragon representing an extreme in snake symbolism. This extreme can be for better or for worse. If the snake has ambivalent reception, the dragon tends to receive either exaltation (China) or the best/worst of both worlds (Greece). If the serpent cannot be anything but evil, the dragon is almost undeniably so to a much larger degree.
Another very popular theory involves dinosaurs. While I do buy this as a valid starting point for dragons, the symbolism doesn't match up. The presence of fossils does not explain the relationship to snakes at all. Given that the symbolic relationship to snakes is almost homogenous, I wonder what proponents of the idea of dragons as dinosaurs think?
Pokemon shows the distinction between Eastern and Western dragons very, very well. We can find the three "basic" types of dragons - the "Eastern," "Western," and wyvern- in the first generation of Pokemon as Gyarados, Charizard, and Aerodactyl respectively. Are the parallels 100%? No, but I will be sure to point out when they are not.
Gyarados is a typical Eastern dragon, even though it does not have legs. Its story originates from the "Dragon Gate" tale in which a carp jumps over a waterfall in order to become a heavenly dragon. Aside from fish, snakes are also said to be capable of this ascension - an idea which is taken to new heights in the Korean imugi. Yes, D-War sucked; that does not mean that its mythological basis is entirely false. (China has the idea of snakes as baby dragons as well, but they never really play it up.)
Evidence of this blur can be found in the Shin Megami Tensei series. The non-Persona games of that franchise blend the terms "snake" and "dragon" more or less freely. Pendragon, a Western-style dragon, is a "Snake," even though it has limbs; Bai SuZhen, a character that would be explicitly a "snake" to most people in the West, is a "Dragon." The Cardfight!! Vanguard card game also has nagas ("Demonic Dragons") listed as "Dragonmen," showing just how blurry this line can be. It really doesn't make that much difference in Asian cultures.
(I also think Seiobo might be a Bai SuZhen reference.)
Eastern dragons, much like naga and other more serpentine dragons, are usually beings of water - a far cry from the fire-breathing beasts common to Christian lore. A few serpents are noticeably fire-breathing (Kiyohime comes to mind), but by and large, Chinese/Eastern dragons are treated as heavenly beings who breathe steam and command rain. This makes them very important for cultures dependent on wet rice fields, like Thailand, or upon the sea, like Japan. Japan even seems to have several types of dragons, both the "water deity" kind and malevolent, fire-breathing serpents that pop up from time to time (see: Orochi and Kiyohime). The situation is a lot more complex than it looks.
Although Chinese dragons are whored (often improperly), they are nowhere near as corrupted as the Western version. Unfortunately, they are heading that way. The more solid the definition of "dragon" gets, the less variety we will see. As the Western and Eastern serpents both get lumped under the same classification of "dragon," things like this start happening:
So now Mushu's Satan?
That said, moving on to the so-called "Western" dragon:
Who else has one of these, eh? ;)
Charizard is our archetypal Western dragon: a massive, scaly beast that flies, breathes fire, and has a grand total of six limbs. There is also probably some salamander in Charizard's design (as hinted by Charmander), but the salamander is an entirely different creature from the dragon. Go look up the mythical salamander for that; it's kind of neat, but I won't be covering it here.
Although I will use the term "Western dragon," the dragon that usually comes to mind is a four-legged beast with leathery wings that breathes fire. This was not so in much of the Western world for a very long time. Prior to the cultural invasion of Christianity, many local, pagan religions had serpentine dragons associated with water and the earth. (When I say "serpentine," I mean "basically giant snakes.") The Lernean Hydra, for example, did not breathe fire at all; as one might have guessed from the name, the Hydra (capitalized here to note that hydra as opposed to any other) was a multi-headed water snake (drakon) that was toxic instead of fiery. I don't see why movie makers don't go for an acidic serpent; enough people are terrified of snakes that even "giant snake" would be a pretty impressive beast.
I am TIRED of these motherf**ing snakes in this motherf**ing chamber!
Even typical-looking Western dragons such as Y Ddraig Goch were largely associated with pestilence- not something that we usually associate with dragons nowadays. It is actually really, really hard to find a four-legged, fire-breathing, winged dragon outside of post-Christian lore. The closest you will get are the Brazilian boitata, and the Hindu/Buddhist nagas - all described as serpents that can manifest spirit fire. (Japan has a few fire-breathing snakes as well.) "Western" by itself is far from homogenous.
"Nagas" are rarely considered Western dragons, but the Greeks had snake/dragon people just like the Indians did. The Greek drakaina ("she-dragon"), in combination with the Hindu naga, has led to the blossoming of female serpents - half-woman, half giant snake. This style of drakaina was generic- there is no one Greek snake woman that can be properly identified, with the notable exception of Echidna (their Tiamat). The drakaina and other snake-people were common to the point where the divine could be represented that way, so long as they somehow came straight from the earth ("autochthonic").
Silly Clash of the Titans...she doesn't need that bow.
Time for some brief mythbusting regarding drakainai. Medusa did not have a serpentine tail as in Clash of the Titans, but was instead part avian in her traditional mythology. The snake hair was still a very real trait, inflicted as a punishment from Athena, who was herself portrayed as a snake goddess (sometimes with a serpentine cloak). The Greeks probably would not have minded making Medusa more draconic, if only because she would then be the queen of dragons (thus making her head the ultimate trophy). The same case holds for Lamia, whose name properly relates to sharks; the "drakaina" version was popularized by John Keats, and again, the Greeks would probably think that synchronicity very fitting. It's not a bad thing that these two got draconified. There's another look at the Western dragon for you.
So, where did the popular Christian dragon come from? Two sources. One is Satan - hellfire, goat horns, pointy teeth, etc. with some serpentine skin to tie it all together. (I've heard some interesting stuff about Celtic dragons being general elemental spirits; this doesn't change the fact that medieval culture demonized them, and the 'Western' dragon draws heavily from medieval sources.) A few depictions of seven-headed serpent Satan add on a human face for good measure. The other way of making a Western dragon is a bit less obvious, and, honestly, much cooler:
If this image of Bellerophon slaying the chimera, a certain (female) fire-breathing lion with wings, a snake tail, and a goat's head, looks familiar, you are not mistaken. The chimaera is the basis for every fire-breathing Western dragon ever. The salamander may have had some influence, too, but even that looks like a chimaera in mythical depictions. A "Western" dragon is effectively a homogenized lion-goat-snake hybrid. Many people throw eagle in there, too. Awesomeness is not the point; point is that the "dragon" we know and love is an unwitting chimera.
Medieval artists loved the Bellerophon mosaic. Almost every picture of St. George slaying the dragon derives from this mosaic in some way, shape or form. It's almost as if they traced the same pic over and over. If copyright laws had been around in the old days, I would bet money that the Western dragon would never have become popular. It's that plagiarized.
Look familiar? Also, note the emphasis on serpentine elements.
What happens when you fuse a snake with the popular perception of demonic forces? A dragon. What happens when you take a Greek chimaera and successfully blend its parts together into a more homogenous entity? A dragon. It's not that hard to see.
This mish-mashed type of dragon was designed to be the ultimate nemesis. It could fly, breathe fire, and embodied the raw power of nature (again, particularly water and darkness originally). Having four clawed limbs was icing on the cake. Sometimes, just to make things even freakier, they would give dragons mammalian genitalia - a good record of which can be found here. (The gendering of the dragon over time would be another essay in and of itself; I will not dive too deeply into it here.) To conquer the dragon was to conquer Mother Nature. Even China, a nation known for revering dragons, has at least one king known for killing one of the serpents; dragon/snake slaying is alive and well everywhere.
That leaves Aerodactyl. Before anybody gets on my case about Aerodactyl not being a dragon, 1) Lance uses an Aerodactyl, as he does Charizard and Gyarados, and 2) despite being constantly compared to serpents in their "native" land, the Japanese use the word "yokuryuu" ("winged dragon") to refer to both extinct pterosaurs and wyverns. It's perfectly legitimate to say that Aerodactyl is a wyvern, despite being revived from a fossil and all that jazz. The cross was clearly intentional.
Wyverns are by far the most realistic type of dragon and have been gaining popularity in recent years. Although one could make an argument for six-limbed dragons being embodiments of the elements, the wyvern is undoubtedly feral and vicious. This is highlighted in one story where a young lady takes in a young wyvern, only to have it grow too big to handle and ultimately go out of her control. There is nothing sacred about a wyvern. Despite this, it remained popular in heraldry.
The word "wyvern" is related to the word "viper." Instead of the serpentine symbolism being exaggerated, here it is 100% kept in-tact. The wyvern is venomous, a sign of plague, and looks very much like a demonic serpent. Aerodactyl doesn't look particularly friendly, either, which is really what one would expect from being based off a pterosaur. (This reputation is further cemented in the anime episode "Attack of the Prehistoric Pokemon," in which Aerodactyl comes inches away from biting Ash's head off.) Wyverns are unanimously man-eating, poisonous menaces.
Count the limbs.
The wyvern has become the new dragon. In an effort to still use dragons while trying to make them 'strange,' filmmakers have decided to hack off two of those extra limbs. Most feral 'dragons' nowadays are technically wyverns if you count the limbs. Even movies don't think dragons are strange anymore.
And you know what? That's a problem. If we lose the root of the dragon - the serpent made strange - then the creature is incomplete. Whatever a dragon once was, its function has changed to fit the times in a way that medieval scholars could never have predicted. The next part will look at the modern dragon and exactly what has changed from its conception into the modern age.
For those of you who haven't seen this already, it's pretty freakin' sweet:
This is a 3-D dueling app for Android phones. I'd get it, buuuut my smartphone's a piece of crap and would probably break after using this once. Things are still in testing mode as far as I can tell. Still, this is pretty cool, even with all the bugs. :)
My only question is this: WHY are you not funding this, Konami?!
For those of you who are concerned: Yes, I do intend to continue this "Year of the Dragon" series. I will definitely have it done before the year is out. The more pics and info I have supporting the next two parts, the better. One of these Fridays, the second part will fly up here.
In the meantime, I thought I would comment on a few things.
First off, Pokemon Black and White 2. No, I have not gotten White 2 yet. I'm taking my time and finishing up other games. There will be a full-blown, awesome critique of it once I get done, though. The fused Kyurems are enough to make me flinch, although I will admit that Kyurem needed the redesign. I winced a little harder upon learning that each version got a different shiny dragon egg, plus a Blaxorus.
From Serebii.net. 1337 Bl4x0rz.
Oh, but it doesn't stop there. Noooo. Pokemon has unleashed a set called "Dragons Exalted," complete with Dragon as a new type. While I agree that Dragon has probably needed a new typing for a while, I'm still calling "dragonhumper" shenanigans. They just got a whole type to themselves in one of the most popular TCG's in the world, and are shilling it with a tin promo, Lati@s, and two Dragon-type decks.With this and the cover dragon(s) for B/W2, Game Freak has made sure that Year of the Dragon is in full swing.
Now, I could rant about YGO again. Thing is, YGO's been off the draconic deep end since at least 5D's and shows no signs of stopping. Vanguard, which I really hope encourages Konami to treat the game more soberly, is a whole different can of worms; although it started out advertising "knights and dragons," given BT09's confirmation of upgrades (I hesitate to call "cross-rides") to Dragonic Kaiser Vermillion and Maelstrom Dragon, I'm starting to wonder if they're starting to push the envelope a little. People were already worried that Limit Break was killing the game; were upgrades really necessary? If these two upgrades actually wind up helping the game, I'll retract my uneasy feelings.
Pokemon, YGO, and, yes, even Vanguard have assured me that the Year of the Dragon is loaded with dragons. After this year, I would love if people started shilling wolves. Please? At least wolves are something besides a symbol. We can donate the money to keeping Yellowstone pretty. The only place dragon money goes is to corporations, who then produce more dragons because your money means that there's demand. It's not that I hate dragons, it's that they don't seem to mean anything anymore.
Read: I do like dragons, I just won't buy something because "OMG IT'S A DRAGON!" Seriously, guys, dragons (particularly the "Western" dragon- you'll see why I have issues with that term later) have become so dirt common that they aren't remotely fantastic in the modern world. The fantastic has become mundane. The dragon's last sanction is that it does not exist. Do you see why that is a problem, yet?
But wait! It gets better:
The Greatest Show On Earth apparently features dragons, now. Admittedly, the advert I saw for this show piqued my curiosity enough to look it up. The actual dragon, above, looks much nicer than the dragon in the trailer. The trailer also advertises dragon tribes that value the virtues "Heart, Courage, Wisdom, and Strength." Considering the "Western" dragon was usually symbolic of Satan, I'm amazed that they would approach people with virtues. Also, what kind of power is "heart," anyways?
HEEAAAART!
You know what's sad? I know people who would buy tickets. I'm not just talking about little kids begging to see the dragon. I'm talking about adults who collect anything with 'dragon' in the name. I would expect these people to not only pay to see 'live' dragons, but also preserve the ticket stub.
On the bright side: PETA can't complain about this one. I just don't know how much crazier things can get this year. Again, I don't hate dragons, but how much are people willing to pay just for "dragon?" I mean it- people are paying for the word "dragon" regardless of whether whatever that word is attached to actually resembles a dragon or not.
Happy Chinese New Year, everyone! 2012 is Year of the Water Dragon, meaning that you should all look up your Year signs and see how this year will treat you. All mysticism aside, it looks to be Year of the Dragon for card games as well.
I was going to mention in my massive gift opening entry that it looks like Target's card game rack has been consumed by dragons. WoW,Yu-Gi-Oh!, and Pokemon all had dragons on their packs. (Alas, that entry remained in draft form largely due to poor timing- look up my YouTube if you're still interested.) After looking into it a tiny bit more, I found that this coincidence was just the tip of the iceberg.
Pokemon is really milking dragons hard, now. The latest Pokemon set, "Noble Victories," has Hydreigon, Kyurem, and Druddigon (*shiver*) as cover monsters. Later, the Reshiram and Zekrom theme decks will be coming out. No doubt there will be tins featuring Reshiram EX and Zekrom EX as well (and perhaps even Kyurem EX). These upcoming new releases are only the beginning.
In honor of the Year of the Dragon, the Pokemon TCG has officially made Dragon its own type. On one hand, it was necessary; it was very weird to have a Rattata doing double damage to Rayquaza. On the other, why? What the hell makes dragons sooo special that they need their own type in the card game? Moreover, what about other types that are completely different from their colors? If you're going to do this with dragons, do it for Ghost and Poison, too. (The alignment of Poison-types in the CCG has been sticky, to say the least.) "Because they're dragons" certainly does not mean that they deserve special treatment. I am sick of hearing that excuse.
In the next part of this article, I will elaborate on not only this mass-watering of dragons, but also on how the dragon has lost its identity. Look at how crazy people got when Twilight made its vampires sparkle; the only reason dragon-lovers aren't freaking out is because we've lost the sense of what a dragon once was. There will be more on this in part two, but at least I'm not the only one sick of dragons.
Yu-Gi-Oh! players - not the omnipresent dragon-collectors in that fanbase - are getting sick of dragon decks. The new dragon deck marks the fourth Structure Deck dragons have had to date. Most of the decks, as decks, have been mediocre at best on their own, but had cards useful when constructing one's own deck (such as Trade-In and Decoy Dragon in one, and common Mirror Force and Dragon Ravine in the other). This new deck is the same way: Backbone of a Chaos deck, some Dragon support cards, some bad Dragon support cards (Lord of Dragons and Flute of Summoning? Why?), some Lightsworn cards, and other things that make it a horrible mish-mash of deck types. I see where they were going with it. Not too sure I like where it was headed.
I admit that I made a rush judgment on how much the two cover dragons might impact the game; to me, ANYTHING resembling Chaos will spell death for YGO. I remember those days. Chaos was why the banlist got created. The banlist remains slipshod, so I fear for the meta after these decks are released. It will also be VERY weird to see the double dragon deck alongside Zekrom and Reshiram decks and/or tins. Talk about being copycats. Live up to your old motto and be creative, Konami!
I cannot speak for World of Warcraft and M:tG. If you are basing off of a standard fantasy setting, some dragons are inevitable. WoW currently has a set called "Twilight of the Dragons." That sounds like a horrible harlequin romance novel...but I digress. It's about time we talked about what a dragon truly is, or at least what it once was.
This blog needs more love. Luckily, Konami has done something that irked me enough to make a post.
So let's get this straight: YGO started the "Black Dragon VS White Dragon" thing, did it again in 5D's, Pokemon mooched it, now YGO's going back and doing it again just to be super-special-awesome hip. It's cool that we're getting REBD and BEWD in the same deck (YAY), but really? Reeeaaaallllyyy? The idea is bad on so many levels, especially with how they're doing it.
For starters, dragons have become truly bloated beasts in the fantasy industry. I daresay YGO's popularity helped stoke that particular flame. Counting this new dragon deck, the game has now had 4 Dragon-themed Structures in its history (not counting Seto Kaiba decks).
I'm not going to go into dragon aesthetics anymore. After trying the process out for myself, I have become convinced that they are just stringing random words together and putting "dragon" on the end. To 5D's' credit, the whole series had a Meso-American theme going; new dragons have no excuses for looking as twisted as they do. The new cover dragons suck in every sense of the word, unless the common supports somehow blow them out of the water.
The deck also has Chaos Sorcerer in it. While that particular Chaos monster has been off the banlist for a while, its presence in this deck and the recent unbanning of "Black Luster Soldier- Envoy of the Beginning" are worrisome. If this is indeed a Chaos Dragon deck, then Chaos Emperor Dragon will either be in the deck or come shortly after. We're all screwed.
On the plus side, existing dragon decks will now have a spare Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon and several other cool reprints to play with. Hopefully things like Totem Dragon will get reprints, too. Consider it a silver lining to the cloud.
(Tangent: I can't believe they made Rescue Rabbit a Secret Rare. I realize it's a good card, but making good cards THAT rare is bad for the game. Up to your old tricks, I see.)
Also, someone please get me this and/or the new Serperior Tin for Christmas. The cute little sculpted figures in both packages are SUPER-detailed. I particularly like how he box set shows Reshiram's wings working; they're segmented at the digits (no, Reshi is likely not feathered), sort of like Avatar's Banshees. I've really been digging that segmented wing style as of late, so sorry if I come off as begging, but...please?
Possibly as revenge for playing DQIV yesterday instead of training my Pokeymanz, I had a horrible, horrible dream related to the franchise that almost made me wake up screaming.
The 3DS has a scrolling side-bar for apps and the like. In my sidebar were two programs I had never seen before...with good reason.
Each program had a box featuring either Latios or Latias that looked like it had been drawn in Paint. The little box with Latias sad 'please be my boyfriend!" in scribble font above the image. The Latios one said something along the lines of "I'm emo." I did not click into either of them, just WTF'd and woke up.
This little dream essentially proves my theory that, after Gen III, Pokemon became a hotbed of furry wank. For those of you who have not seen the Pokemon Heroes movie, Latias was indeed interested in having Ash as her boyfriend...or at least a "friend who happens to be a boy." It was open to interpretation, but really, the sheer amount of Lati-wank leads me to believe that the relationship was very deliberately planned on Game Freak's part.
Good GODS, how much has being in the furry fandom scarred me?! Hell, the little Lati pics even LOOKED like they had been drawn by furries. Someone please kill me before Nintendo makes this idea real.
One day, I was looking on eBay for deals on Pokemon White for my friend. The 3DS drive was a success in that I managed to scrounge up almost enough in gift cards to buy the system. This meant I still had to gift my friend in another way. Still on the hunt for that Pokemon White, guys.
While I did find a few good deals on Pokemon White, I also noticed a suspicious amount of deals on Pokemon. Not toys. Not cards. Actual little bits of data for your Pokemon B/W game. The main creatures up for grabs were (likely cloned) event and shiny Pokemon. Others were selling literally ANY Pokemon you could ask for with a certain price. Some came with attached Master Balls if one paid a certain amount. They were cheap and came with free shipping, but the idea of selling data (let alone HACKED data) over eBay still made me WTF inside.
Alas, I had seen this trend before. Yu-Gi-Oh! has it even worse. People will actually pay decently high amounts for Pot of Duality in the YGO online game. Sure, the shipping's free, but am I the only one who feels a little leery towards the idea of selling data on eBay?
Yes, I have a confession: Along with tins, I love Konami for Hidden Arsenal. I love the shiny. I love the art. Hell, the themes in HA are actually PLAYABLE. Although the packs are slightly overpriced for having less cards, it's forgivable, especially with the new 3-pack Special Edition box. Three packs of awesome and promo cards that gel with it? Count me in.
For starters, HA has some of the coolest themes I have seen in a long time. Flaming dinosaurs, ice dragons, awesome thunderbirds, and animal-plant hybrids, and mythological beasts abound in sets full of foil. Every card in these sets is geared towards an effective, aesthetically-unified theme. Said theme may or may not be supplemented by cards in bigger sets. One pack of Hidden Arsenal has more trade potential than a normal pack of YGO cards by virtue that someone, somewhere, will actually be looking for these cards for their own themed deck.
SPARKLE SPARKLE, CHARLIE!
And if they aren't? The spare cards are still useful simply because they are shiny. A useful foil, some supplementary HA cards, and a LOT of commons makes for an excellent lot if you know how to sell it. I've seen "Reptile Decks" marketed with Worms and a few common Reptiliannes. Kids love shiny cards, a fact that nets people amazing trades every day. One can use packs full of shiny cards to one's advantage.
Keep doing these, Konami. YGO's main selling point is its art. Mix awesome art with playable foils and a lot of sparkle and I will keep buying.
5.5 pages' worth of awesomeness, and still not even halfway to getting all 123 cards in the set! I have the Legend cards already as well as all the Primes for the first set (from what I can tell). A BIG thank you to eBay user sephir08 for sharing his accumulated holos with me in exchange for shiny Legend cards he was after. There were over 30 in the lot!
Want a deal like that? Trade in your HG/SS base set (ONLY base set) reverse holos for something cooler! Rares like that really expensive Ninetales take priority. Offer MUST include nine or more HG/SS base reverse holos. I am also interested in the holofoil versions of the special HG/SS Energy cards with Johto Pokemon on them. You could get a great deal by helping this collection reach completion!
If you are interested in contributing to the collection, please send me an e-mail (ShadowKuroKarasu@gmail.com), G+ message (ShadowKuroKarasu), or Tweet (@kurokarasu) with the title/message "HGSS Collection Project." I will get back to you ASAP.
In regards to my DS issues: The 3DS will a price slash on August 12th, so I will be trying for that on the one day it is off. My friend will still get his copy of Pokemon White. I will be starting breeding projects like crazy, so if you missed out on Dream World Eeveelutions or want a female Droughtpix/Rainywag, keep your eyes on this blog. Each one of those will be GUARANTEED to have at least 1 IV in 31 and test as "relatively superior" all around (any lower will be GTS food). More great deals coming your way VERY soon!
The video says it all, really. What it doesn't say is exactly what the Green Tornado Project is, so allow me to explain that here.
Pokemon has an amazing variety of foils and allows one to foil one's entire deck without spending obscene amounts of money. In YGO, a foil version of a card can be up to five times as much as its common counterpart. Getting such cards usually involves scaling and/or ripping off little kids. Pokemon does not have to do that.
So I started a project to "bling" the Green Tornado Starter Deck. That is, every card in the entire deck, down to the last energy card, will be coated in shiny foil. Cards that are already foil, such as the cover Serperior, do not need replacing.
Thus far, I only have a few of the necessary commons. Any RH Snivy-family cards would be appreciated regardless of what version. ;) That DS drive is still going on, but people give up cards easier than money.
So I was clicking around ShriekTCG randomly when looking at what I could possibly get from Gold Series 4. There were a lot of comments about "Pot of Duality" that must have been posted before the set was released. "Pot of Duality, Pot of Duality, Pot of Duality" kept coming up.
So I finally looked up "Pot of Duality." Good card. Secret Rare. Worth 70 bucks or so on eBay.
*Facepalm.*
Did you not learn your lesson from Mirror Force, Magic Cylinder, and Crush Card Virus? Making good cards like that so very hard to get is why people don't like you. At least you had the sense to reprint Pot of Duality decently quickly, and Mirror Force is now easy as pie to get.
Can't believe I'm going to binge on a Leviath Dragon Tin for Pot of Duality and Dark Simorgh alone.
Speaking of, I did not expect that I would like the latest set from Japan NEARLY as much as I do. I officially want to make a Blue-Eyes White Rabbit deck FOR TEH LULZ (Rabbi-Dragon will get its own blog entry soon). The Evols look like they might be a fun theme to get used to Xyz's with, and I dig the DNA helix in all their tails. The shadow lizard thing and Light Serpent must be mine. Looking forward to seeing this set in English, as well as my own Leviath tin at some point.
Quick, GET THE HOLY HAND GRENADE!
Oh, and please don't hesitate to donate to my 3DS collector's White DSi fund. In short, I had a change of plans due to 1. shortage of funds and 2. a desire to see one of my friends get Pokemon White. Help me and a friend by pitching in! See you all again when stuff starts happening!
Yeah, not the best pack set the coin has ever chosen for me...but also not the worst. It really bites because there were other bundle sets with HG/SS packs in them, and I kinda needed the RH's out of those. Ah well; my other RH's came in from Texas, so expect pics of my expanded collection very soon!
Also, even if YGO does use clip art a bit too much, said clip art makes for badass sleeves. I wish they had Ra sleeves. Ra seems to like me (see? I'm part of the Illuminati already). Start putting these sleeves in tins so that we have more of an incentive to play the game, Konami.
I thought I was done with YGO. I really did. Then I saw the Pyramid boxes and could not resist, for some reason. Nostalgic love, perhaps? Plus FINALLY getting a cool playmat? (They chose the mats really well; besides my BEWD one, there's a DMG one, then one with Dark Magician + BEWD.)
By the way, The Zone finally came to its senses and started stocking Pokemon. You know what I'm getting every other day of the week in thanks. :)
I love shiny things. Really, I do. That goes triple for shiny, shiny trading cards with cool monsters on them like Pokemon. The reverse-holos included in every pack are why Nintendo owns a chunk of my soul, still. (Eff you for not doing the same, Konami; it is so good for TCGs/CCGs on so many levels.) Go figure I would think up a few projects to do with them.
Project 1: A collection of the HG/SS base set...in reverse-holo. So far, I have 19 of the RH-print cards, including all but 1 Prime, as well as a snazzy binder reserved juuust for this project. Kinda pathetic seeing as I don't know anyone around who plays the game. Will create a new entry when a bunch of HG/SS RHs I traded for come in.
Project 2: Bling your deck! In Pokemon, it is theoretically possible to have a deck composed entirely of shiny cards. The goal of this one is to make a copy of the "Green Tornado" deck entirely out of foil cards - even the Energy cards will sparkle! Started yesterday when I was tempted to put up a lot of B/W RH's, only to realize that hrrrrm, I could make a deck of 60 shiny cards.Again, this is kinda pathetic because my game store is too stupid to pick up a multi-billion dollar franchise with a much better game than YGO.
Plus, it looks great on this blog. Now I actually have something to do on it besides open card packs and bitch about how dragons are ruining the world!
Of course, the 3DS is still more important at this point. I never want to be on a long flight/road trip without Pokeymanz again. Plus, it's another means of accessing the interwebs, and seeing how both of my comps are sick, I could use as many of those means as possible. In all likelihood, the DS repair guy is gonna say my old system's gonna need like...100 bucks' worth of repairs, at which point I best get a new system anyways.
Also, I have no idea how texting charges work. So much for using the 'net on my phone.
Now that I've been deprived of my DS for more than a month, it's probably about time that I posted a piece I've been working on ever since school started: A thorough critique of Pokemon Black/White. I did not post it at first due to not experiencing everything I wanted to in Black, but I may as well post it since a new friend of mine so kindly asked about the games.
Pokemon Black/White: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
This past March, Pokemon Black and Pokemon White hit game stores around the world. Many were salivating for one reason or another: Improved graphics, unbreakable TMs, whatever new Pokemon have you, Dream World, or even the new evil bishounen, N. As more and more information leaked from the Japanese games, they began to sound better and better.
But were they really worth the hype? We (i.e. a few friends and I) played them ourselves to find out!
The Good:
Improved Graphics: The graphics are pretty good for a Pokemon game. We were probably expecting more (watch, Pokemon Gray/Sepia will improve it by MILES), but, for now, the visual style has improved. B/W really is trying to work in the third dimension. Whether it succeeds or not is up to you.
Along with this, the Pokemon are now more animated. Instead of just moving when released from their balls, the Pokemon move all the time in these two new games. It took you long enough, Nintendo, but at least you did it.
Better Story: Team Plasma is not out to take over the world from the get-go. Instead, they resemble PETA - without saying too much, they believe that Pokemon should be free instead of trapped in little balls and forced to fight. This is far more sympathetic than the usual “world domination” gimmick and answers some objections that people have had to the franchise.
But that fashion sense is soooo 1500's.
The need to see two sides of the story gives people a reason to get both games. Subtle differences in areas and Pokemon help further the effect. These games really are two sides of the same coin!
Better Characters: It is obvious that some work went into the characters this time around. If I had to guess, a lot more work went into the characters, graphics, and story than any other areas. The rivals are not generic douchebags; one is a trainer searching for the true meaning of strength, the other is Luna Lovegood as a Pokemon character. N is the tool of an evil mastermind, not an evil mastermind himself. I am also particularly fond of (!non-loli) Caitlin and Shauntal, but more on that later.
The Two New Fossils: An Archaeopteryx and an Archelon? Many of the other designs easily fall under “the ugly,” but these two really deserve praise. Bless you, Nintendo, even if you are stealing from Fossil Fighters. (The less said about the third fossil, the better.) There are a few other cool designs (I really like Reshiram, too!), but these two struck me as being especially praiseworthy. It’s always cool to see fossil beasties besides standard dinosaurs, and the more people that know about prehistoric wildlife, the better. Also, the Archelon is an easy way to get Shell Smash, one of the best stat-boosting moves in the game, into your Water-type breeding projects. :)
Serperior: Just...Serperior. It is stunning that Nintendo made a snake Pokemon that not only looks good, but plays well, levels at a decent rate (unlike Seviper) and gives Grass a new option. Argue all you like that it’s a rather gimmicky Grass-Type (which will come up again later); snakes needed a boost, and Serperior was that classy, insane boost. It is easily my favorite Pokemon ever after cleaning out a whole Gym full of dragons. Good work, Nintendo.
Even the bad CGI cannot stop Serperior from looking like it means business.
A Few of the Dub Names: Nintendo's favor towards dragons aside, the “ein,” “zwei,” “drei,” in the new psuedo-Legendary line's name is kinda cool. After a while, Snivy also grew on me (for being an accurate translation).
New Abilities: Sturdy got a new modification: if an attack would OHKO a Pokemon with Sturdy, it retains 1 HP. Moxie is also pretty cool (kill something and get an attack boost). Contrary is broken. Overall, the new abilities and the modifications to old abilites are cool.
EVIOLITE: This boosts both defenses of a NFE (not fully evolved) Pokemon. It makes Chansey and Dusclops fierce foes, even in OU. Dragonair finally has a reason to be besides evolving into Dragonite! (Think about this: A Dragon-type with raised defenses and a chance of healing every turn? Mmm. ) Give not fully evolved Pokemon a leg up? Yes please!
Wi-Fi options: Probably THE BEST THING about these new games is that, to trade or battle, you do not have to switch out your current team. You can pull them onto the internet straight from your PC Boxes! No more awkward team mistakes!
The Random Battle feature is also sweeeet. Although you can only use three Pokemon (as in the Battle Tower or Subway) it is JUST AWESOME to be able to battle someone in Japan or Italy that you have never met before. You don’t know what to expect. Neither do they.
Seasons: The Pokemon you can find vary with the seasons. Pokemon is getting more and more realistic. Honestly, this is a really cool idea. MAJOR props for keeping time and day/night as well.
Non-Linear Elite 4: There is no “order” to the Elite 4 in Black/White. You can pick who to fight first, second, etc. This leaves you with some options: Level up your team on easier members first, OR take the hard ones first and save the easy ones for when your Pokemon are exhausted. Eat dessert first or save it for after dinner. Your choice.
Unbreakable TMs: Yes, you can now use TMs over and over and over. For those of us that want a lot of things with Earthquake and Stone Edge, this is a proper blessing. For those of you who liked earning Game Corner TMs (which will likely still be hard to get for anyone not in Japan), sucks to be you; the benefits of reusable TMs outweigh the bad points. Earn a TM once and have the right to use it forever. Sweet.
The New EXP System: Long story short, weaker Pokemon gain more EXP from fighting stronger opponents, and stronger Pokemon gain less EXP from fighting weaker opponents. This makes a lot of logical sense, even if the result IS crazy EXP gain. It almost compensates for the obscenely high evolution levels of some Pokemon. Almost.
Cynthia: Sorry, I’m a fangirl. Seriously, though? Her team makes more sense now that Togekiss has been replaced by a badass eagle. Plus, she helps get your team to Lv100 - never a bad thing!
Dream World: Dream World takes patience, but is otherwise pretty cool. Old Pokemon, new abilities, and more entries for your Dex. There is no way that introducing Sunny Day teams into lower tiers than Uber could possibly be a bad thing.
The Bad:
No Partner Pokemon: For all of you who enjoyed this feature in HG/SS, it’s gone now. Pokemon can no longer walk alongside you. It’s a shame; keeping partner Pokemon would have served the game’s plot well.
Trainers Are Not Animated: Even though the Pokemon are.
No Berries: Except in Dream World, one cannot plant Berries. Even R/S kept Berries after they had been introduced. Isn’t removing agriculture sorta sending players back into the Stone Age? At least they cannot remove Fire-Type Pokemon or the wheel (or Flame Wheel, for that matter).
PokeShifter: In order to transfer Pokemon to B/W, you need three things: One, a B/W game; two, a Gen IV game; three, another DS to communicate with. After that, Pokeshifter makes you ‘shoot’ transferred Pokemon with Poke Balls in a certain time frame. This is harder than it sounds. Hunting them in Pal Park was bad enough. Now we have a time limit and hand-eye coordination to deal with. We also cannot send any of our items over from the old games. Nice, Nintendo. Nice.
Obscenely High Evolution Levels: So, I like the Mienshao’s design (even if it DOES look a lot like a Digimon). The bitch of the matter is that the base form, a creature not unlike the “Badger Badger” badgers, has to be raised to Level 50 to evolve. That is a long time, although some would say that its stats justify the effort.
This is not the only instance of needing an extremely high level to evolve. There is a larval form of a giant, fiery moth that needs to be raised to Level 60 to really get anywhere. The Pseudo-Legendary this Gen does not reach its full potential until it gets in its 60’s, either. This is not cool, Nintendo. Even with the new EXP mechanism, not cool.
Some of the Designs: Honestly...they wasted three slots on a snow cone Pokemon designed by an American. Ice was not that desperate a type. The gear monsters are uninteresting in every single way. Also, that Garbage Pokemon is just that: Garbage. At least that last one carries Black Sludge.
No New Eeveelution...or Support For Previous Generations: Luvdisc could use something to do with itself, like evolving into that heart sunfish. There’s a transfer system, but as the PokeShifter point says, it sucks. This game does not even want you to transfer items over. Granted, there is a reason for this (some items, such as Soul Dew, were supposedly deleted), but it still bites.
Pokemon Musicals: Musicals with humans are already adequate laughing stocks (see High School Musical for details). What made you think that it would work any better with Pokemon? It would, however, be awesome to see a Serperior playing Elphaba in Wicked.
THOSE GODDAMN MONKEYS: At first, I thought the three elemental monkeys, Pansear, Panpour, and Pansage, were going to be like Eevee - that is, extremely rare in-game, so raise yours well. Nope. They can be found in the wild, have a male-favoring sex ratio, and everyone and their mother has one, if not all three, in-game. They would be tolerable if they were rarer; when, oh, hey, another trainer has a mutant Aipom or three, they get annoying fast.
Sure, they look cute now, but then you fight them over...and over...and over....
DRUDDIGON: There is one Pokemon that embodies EVERYTHING WRONG WITH THESE GAMES: Druddigon! It’s a dragon, it sucks (high ATK, but slow), and it looks like something drawn by a six-year-old. It feels like somebody at Game Freak said, “hey, Sugimori? We need another dragon Pokemon for the Opelucid City Gym!” so Sugimori asked his son to design a dragon on the spot.
The English name bites double; it not only sounds bad, but the Japanese name did not even reference this Pokemon’s status as a dragon. If you were going to do that, Nintendo, there would have been a million classier ways to do it.
Think the idea of a dragon-gargoyle is cool? Think again.
(Druddigon/Crimgan: Clearly a product of Pokemon INbreeding.)
Ash Still Exists: Because if you’re going to start the anime series for your brand-shiny-new games in a new region with all-new Pokemon, you just have to bring the oldest character in the series and his Pikachu along for the ride. People in Isshu are stunned by Ash's Pikachu. Probably could have saved the animators some work by just designing all-new characters.
The Ugly:
Zorua and Zoroark: Oh, wow...where do I begin? These were only two Pokemon we knew about for a LONG time, and they’re both event Pokes that require another DS and a super-special Legendary to encounter. (These Legendaries ONLY being available at GameStop at first just added insult to injury.) The new foxes got the Movie treatment just like Lucario did, complete with full support from the furries.
While Zoroark is a very fun Pokemon, it (in the case of the event, she) is also undeniably furry bait. They are also undeniably useful in-game (but slightly less useful in PVP). The people who have those Shiny Beasts are going to be rich just from breeding Zorua for the deprived furries. This was not a good use of two Pokemon. Zoroark, I love you, but I really wish Nintendo had not handled you the way that they did.
We Were Expecting Better: The graphics in B/W are only slightly better than in Generation IV. They do new things, but in general, the quality is only slightly improved. The main silver linings are the animated Sugimori drawings, which have never been done before in a Pokemon game and thus have no precedent to worry about. It’s more like teaching an old dog new tricks than an actual improvement.
Nintendo Has Become A Copyright Stickler: Back in September, Nintendo wanted PokeBeach and Serebii to remove all of their official images. This was probably because the sites were using sponsored links, thus making money off of Nintendo’s work.
While this is understandable, really, Nintendo? Are you sure that you want to target privately-owned news sites as opposed to bootleg merchandise made in sweatshops and colored using child labor and lead paint? Those are probably stealing more of your money, and they’re killing people. Priorities.
Many of the Designs: Without being outright horrible-looking, many of the designs fall into the nowhere-mire of “this could have been cool, but...” Much of it resulted from working backwards - case in point, the three djinn monsters (we wanted a pure Flying-type, so we got one). Some of them are also clear Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s references, which is also kind of sad. (Reshiram, for example, has very similar wings to Stardust Dragon...if a bit more plausible. The Nazca line Pokemon speaks volumes.)
What is REALLY ugly, though, is the rift that Nintendo has created between those of us that loved Gen I and II and the new players, who may not experience the same dislike of the new Pokemon. I have never seen so many people both in favor of and against the new designs. Maybe it’s the usual “Old VS New” rift, but it feels more intense than that. I am honestly split this Gen. There were some designs I loved and some that I HATED, so I can see where both sides are coming from.
Power Creep: Making this gap even uglier is the sheer power of the new Pokemon. There are Pokemon with better stats than ever before without half the effort. B/W Pokemon make all of the older Pokemon we know and love worthless. Sure, our old friends can do new things, but numbers talk; the new Pokemon completely outclass Pokemon from even one Generation before.
Dragonhumping: Dialga, Giratina and Palkia were the last cover trinity, and they were all dragons. They were also poorly-drawn, barely looking like dragons...or much of anything, really. Reshiram and Zekrom look considerably better, but some of the other dragons this Gen look like they were drawn by 6-year-olds. I do not care HOW much you like dragons. That cave dragon (Druddigon, Crimgan, whatever) and Kyurem have no excuses for how horribly they were drawn, but people will want them just because “OMG DRAGONS!” (On a cultural note, it is also very weird for a dragon to be considered “yin” in a yin-yang pairing.)
Gimmicks: Yes, the Dream World Serperior is powerful, but its only real strategy is to spam Leaf Storm. Nobody is going to use Triple Battles ever, even if you give us cool new moves to use with them. There are a lot of things in this generation designed to work exactly one way, which will suck until Nintendo brings out some new move tutors.
Isshu/Unova: It’s set in New York. Seriously, what? Sure, it led to a bunch of North American animals getting the spotlight for once, but there was not much need to stray outside of Japan (let alone to a wildlife-deprived part of the United States). There are still a few Japanese aspects left in, like shrines and dream-eating tapirs. Were you trying to please Lady Gaga, Nintendo?
Then again, I'd like to please Lady Gaga, too.
The New Dub Names: For the first time ever, Nintendo has changed the name of the new region from “Isshu” to “Unova.” Presumably, this is a portmanteau of “United States” and “nova (Latin for ‘new’)”, but that does not make it suck any less. “Pansear” and the names of the other monkeys will be lost on most people. At least “Snivy” is a fairly accurate translation of the Japanese name. “Servine” is a blasphemy to the English language; it sounds waaaayyy too much like "cervine," which means "deerlike." Some of them have grown on me, but others have not.
Too Many Things in Threes: Three is a magic number. This Generation sports three Legendary Trinities total, three mutated Aipoms, and two different styles of three-on-three battling. No matter how magical the number three is, I am quite sure it knows when it is being unnecessarily whored. Have I mentioned the monkeys? Yes? Okay.
This Is How It Is Going To Be: Nintendo seems to have disowned the previous four Generations. They are not allowing any Pokemon from any region except Unova in the 2011 Championships. Expect very little support for all the Pokes you know and love. They better make a new Eeveelution or two in Gen VI.
Does it need another evolution? Not really, but it shows you care, NIntendo.
Ruby and Sapphire Remakes?!: The new games have a lot in common with Gen III. The thing that really screamed “I’ve seen this before” to me was Route 17/18, which has a ton of annoying jellyfish and swift currents of water that tell you where to Surf. They also have a bay with a few Dive spots and a perfectly useless pink fish. This is going to get problematic and/or interesting if Black and White are indeed set in the future (how will Hoenn have changed?).
Double Talk: First Nintendo says that they will not put any old characters in the game, then they put Cynthia and the Magikarp guy from Kanto in. Dream World’s whole selling point is catching older Pokemon, and you need a Johto Legendary to get Zoroark, an extremely helpful Pokemon against the new Elite Four. What happened to “all new” and a “fresh feel?”
I am personally worried about Caitlin, no matter how much I like her; the age difference compared to Caitlin in Platinum and HG/SS implies that years have passed between Gen IV and Gen V, which opens a whole new can of worms. Some have told me that B/W take place ten years in the future. That seems a little much, but some time has definitely passed.
What happened to the Battle Frontier? Did Sinnoh get hit by a giant earthquake nuked? How about Oak? Did he CEASE TO BE? Is he an EX-PROFESSOR? If so, it might explain why he is not in these games...
For a game that’s supposed to be all new and fresh, Nintendo is blurring the lines a lot. Either make it super-shiny new or acknowledge that a lot of old stuff will show up. Cut the BS.
Freemasons?: The background for Black and White is a checkerboard. Combine with the brainwashing N went through from a young age and one has a conspiracy theory in the works. That is, of course, if you believe such things.
Overall Verdict: 8/10. Famicom was exaggerating - these games are far from perfect.. If you can wait for Gray or whatever the Ruby/Sapphire remakes will be (...please don’t make them if you can help it, Nintendo), hold out. If you just have to get at least 6 of the new Pokemon, by all means get Black/White. Otherwise, you can probably wait. Stick with Gen IV games if you can. Gen V looks better than Gen III, but that is not saying a lot.
Your resident lover of weird creatures, foods, etc. Likes going outside and looking for faeries in whatever form they choose to take. Is fascinated by parasites, worms, snakes, and anything with wings.
